A Beautiful Friendship [INVITE ONLY]

[Kristoph "Aeon" Vashti]

Kristoph sat in the pilot’s seat of his VTOL. In the troop bay, typically filled to capacity with soldiers, held only one man – Frederick Di Lowenthal. Underneath the craft, the mountains and jungles of Britannia’s southern continent passed serenely. The peaceful appearances were like some kind of rude joke compared to the battlefield the two had just left. The combat on the ground had been intense and bloody. The air was a different story, though. The rebels had only a few older model aircraft that had fallen easily. After Kristoph had eliminated the air presence, all that was left for him to do was hover above the battlefield and wait for the fighting to die down. That had happened at almost the same time as the demise of Freddy’s Knightmare.

Kristoph set the autopilot to take the pair back to Freddy’s airship. “You know, you wouldn’t need me to chaperone you around so much if you didn’t beat the hell out of your Knightmares all the time,” he said after turning to look back into the troop bay. His tone was one that most people reserved for those that they saw as “below” them. “Then again, that’s what you get when you drive a piece of crap Knightmare Frame.” It was less a description of the particular model that Frederick had been piloting than Knightmares in general. “On the brighter side of life, we caught a POW. He’s being held in a detention cell on the airship, awaiting ‘interrogation.’” Kristoph grinned at the possibilities. He turned back to the front and turned on his radio. “Airship Royal Britannia, this is VTOL Twelve, coming in for landing. I have Kilo-One safe onboard.”

Without waiting for the response from the airship’s pilot, Kristoph brought his VTOL in to land. As soon as the craft was secure in the hangar, he deactivated the craft. “Shall we go meet our guest?”

[thelightsworn]

Frederick was sitting on one of the folding benches in the VTOL’s holding area. The mission had gone well, the insurgents had been eliminated and the leader of the small cell had been aprehended. That was the gist of the mission anyway. Frederick was staring into the corner blankly, thinking back over the mission. No one in his small platoon of soldiers died, which was good. Loyal Brittanian soldiers need not die just to root out a few weeds. Weeds, in this instance, being insurgents bent on trying to destabilize Brittania and remove the aristocracy again, or so he believed at the moment. Interrogating their new “friend” was going to fill in the blanks.

“Shall we go meet our guest?”

”Yeah,” Frederick said to his hidden childhood friend, snapping out of his thoughts. ”Yeah, sounds good. I’m eager to learn what this set of traitors has to say about their cheap excuse for their actions.” Frederick put an emphasis on the phrase traitors. That’s all these people were now. Once they were Brittanian citizens, the superior stock, or so the old propaganda would have everyone believe. Now they were traitors. Killing them didn’t fill Frederick with joy or pious adrenaline. Killing people never made him happy. It was something he had to do as part of his job, and it wasn’t something he hesitated to do, not when it came to his duty.

The VTOL hatch popped open and Frederick stood, looking out into the familiar hangar. ”Come on Kristoph, we’ve got someone’s fingernails to tear out.”

[Kristoph "Aeon" Vashti]

"Yeah. Yeah, sounds good. I’m eager to learn what this set of traitors has to say about their cheap excuse for their actions." He sounded a little distracted. Kristoph sighed and took off his helmet. He dropped it into the empty copilot seat.

"You cocky bastard. You weren't even listening to me, were you?" Kristoph figured he should have expected as much, though. Frederick almost always got all moody and contemplative after a mission. Kristoph found it annoying and pointless, but it was Freddy's way. He leaned forward and pressed a button, opening the hatch to the troop bay. He opened the door to the cockpit and hopped out.

"Come on Kristoph, we’ve got someone’s fingernails to tear out."

Kristoph looked back at his long-time friend. There wasn't any emotion in the man's voice. It was dull, almost dead, but the possibility was exciting. "Fingernails, huh?" He grinned. "So does that mean that you're gonna stay the hell out of my way this time?" He asked with a fair deal of irritation in his voice.

"Just do me a favor: if you start feeling queasy about this one like you did that worthless Earl, just leave the room." The last thing that Kristoph wanted was to be interrupted. Again. The art of "interrogation" was something that Kristoph had worked long and hard to perfect.

[thelightsworn]

Frederick cocked and eyebrow at the mention of the Earl. Earl Lundgren was suspected of treason to Brittania via the European Universe. He had a cadre of armed guards with him at all times, all conscripts from the Brittanian military. Frederick had wanted to avoid killing them as much as possible, so he went in and helped with the detail. As the knight of one, the Earl couldn’t help but accept him as a guest for a few days. Once the opening had appeared, Frederick kidnapped the Earl and secreted him away. Everything had gone according to plan. Once they started up the interrogation though, Kristoph had gotten slightly out of hand before anything concrete had slipped out.

”That’s not going to be a problem this time,” Frederick replied. ”No, this time we know for sure already that he’s a liability to the empire. We only took him in for questioning to get any furthur information out of him. Confirmation on known affiliates, other insurgent groups he’s had contact with, any possible funding from other countries who would have an interest in bringing down Brittania, that sort of thing.”

Frederick exited the hangar and began walking down the familiar corridors towards the holding cells and interrogation room. ”So if you feel the need to employ the belt sander this time, then I won’t stop you. He’s going to die after he’s outlived his worth as a fount of information anyway.”

[Kristoph "Aeon" Vashti]

Kristoph fell in step behind the Knight as Frederick spoke. "So if you feel the need to employ the belt sander this time, then I won’t stop you. He’s going to die after he’s outlived his worth as a fount of information anyway."

The Squire laughed at the memory. That was by far one of his favorite techniques. On a lower power setting, a belt sander would at best give some nasty lacerations. On higher settings, however, it had the potential to tear down through muscles. He had almost made it to the Earl's bone before Freddy stopped him. "You know as well as I do that he deserved it even if he wasn't connected to the EU." Lundgren's attitude had been just the sort that pissed Kristoph off the most: the Earl had believed himself to be better than, well, just about everyone of a "lower" birth.

"Somehow, I doubt that I'll have to break out that particular toy this time around. These insurgent types are weaklings. I bet I can get him to talk with just a few harsh words." Of course, that wasn't all he would do to the man. Kristoph pulled a radio out of his pocket and contacted the bridge. "Captain, this is Vashti. Set a course for the Homeland. The Knight of One and I are on our way to interrogate the prisoner." The commander of the airship gave his affirmative and the link went dead.

[thelightsworn]

Frederick rounded the final corner to the interrogation room. Upon walking in he found himself looking at a bound and gagged Brittanian in ragged clothing tied to chair which was bolted to the floor to prevent the interrogated parties from attempting to use the chair as an impromptu weapon. The man stared at Frederick as he walked in. His eyes burned with hatred as he looked at the two entering the room. Frederick looked him over. Pulling out his sidearm he fired a single round into the captive's knee. The man recoiled as much as he could considering his bindings and let out a scream only barely muffled by the gag. Frederick looked at the man and waited. It took a few minutes before the man calmed down. When he finally came back to a normal seated position he stared Frederick down with more contempt than ever. Frederick responded by firing two rounds into the man's other knee and one into his shoulder. After another few minutes of waiting in relative silence. This time when the captive came back to a relatively normal seating position he was staring down into his lap, tears of pain streaking his face. "Very well," Frederick said holstering his gun and sitting down in the chair opposite of his bleeding captive. "Now we can begin."

[Kristoph "Aeon" Vashti]

Kristoph was not surprised to hear a gunshot behind him as he closed the door. He was quite surprised at the following three, though. It was rare to see Freddy get so worked up. Kristoph smiled as he walked around the seated Knight. "Now we can begin." With a smile that was entirely too pleasant for the situation at hand, Kristoph walked up to the prisoner.

He dropped one hand onto the man’s wounded shoulder in an almost friendly, comforting gesture. "What the esteemed Knight of One here means is…" Kristoph started squeezing, putting pressure on the man’s newest injury while his free hand pulled the man’s gag down. All the while, showing that same pleasant smile. "Tell us everything you can about your organization. Locations, key members, force strength, those sorts of things. Do that and we’ll let you free." It wasn’t necessarily a lie – the man’s body would be freed from the chair at some point.

Feeling as though his point had been made, Kristoph stepped back from the prisoner. The man just glared up at him. "Oh, come on. You don’t have to play the hard-ass anymo-" he stopped himself at the sound of someone spitting. He looked down at his uniform and saw a spot of wetness. Without any sort of prelude, he lashed out, striking his fist against the man’s shoulder, exactly where Frederick’s bullet had penetrated. The prisoner cried out in pain at the sudden assault, but his scream was cut short when Kristoph’s hand shot forward and latched cruelly onto the man’s throat.

"That was adorable. Really, it was. But we’re not here to watch you do tricks. We’re here to get information. So let’s start with something simple: what’s your name?" Kristoph had often found that little tidbits about the personal lives of prisoners could go a long way in getting them to divulge information. Of course, coercion would be considerably easier after they could gather some intelligence on the man’s family. To allow the man to be able to answer, Kristoph slackened his grip slightly. His fingers stayed resting on the man's throat, ready to squeeze at a moment's notice.

[thelightsworn]

Frederick sat through Kristoph’s opening move, watching carefully as Kristoph applied pressure to the captive’s already delecate situation. It wasn’t often that Kristoph even bothered with the “good cop” act, and it wasn’t long before the traitor ruined his chances of keeping the act up with a well placed expulsion of saliva landing directly on Kristoph’s shirt. It surprised Frederic k that the man still had that much spirit after the pain he had already endured. The purpose of the opening gunshots was to break him so they could move on to the interrogation portion of the conversation, as opposed to the torture. This insect seemed to have more fight in him than Frederick first thought. As soon as Kristoph had loosened his hold on the man’s neck he began coughing. Amidst the coughing he managed to say, ”Dante James Morrow.” ”Good,” Frederick leaned back in the chair and stood up. ”Now, how about we move on to information about the group of terrorist trash you lead?” The man’s eyes narrowed with contempt, eyeing Frederick. ”We’re the Aristocrat Disposal Movement, and our goal is destroy Britannia. You all cling to… He suddenly yelled out in pain. Frederick had shot him in his good shoulder. ”You’re not going to destroy Britannia, you worthless insect.” The irritation in his voice was clear as glass. He marched over to the traitor and put his side arm directly against the man’s forehead. ”You had better choose your next words carefully.”

[Kristoph "Aeon" Vashti]

Kristoph didn’t even flinch at the gunshot. He knew that Freddy would never shoot him. Apparently, the Knight’s patience with the prisoner was worn even more thinly than his own. “You had better choose your next words carefully.” The threat was accompanied by a gun to the prisoner’s forehead. Kristoph glanced over at his friend and took his hand from the prisoner’s throat.

Kristoph took out his radio and contacted the bridge again. “Captain, this is Vashti. Bring the altitude up to 20. If you want a show, keep an eye off starboard aft,” he said, the smile from before returning. The captain of the airship answered with a confused affirmative. Kristoph turned back to the prisoner. “Now then, Mister Morrow. I have one final question for you. How far has this quaint little insurgency of yours spread?” For his part, Dante gave another defiant look and stayed silent.

“Now that just won’t do. That’s okay though. Here’s a little incentive. Do you have a family?” The prisoner’s eyes widened just a fraction. “Perhaps a wife and a son? Or maybe you have a daughter.” Dante reacted at the mention of his child. “I appear to have struck a nerve. Well, let’s set something straight, then. If you don’t answer my question, I’ll be paying your precious daughter a little visit. Don’t worry. I wouldn’t dream of doing anything as heinous as raping the poor girl, no. I would just bring some of my most favorite toys. Have you seen what a belt sander can do to a human body?”

“Oh God, please don’t!” the man cried in an anguished voice. “She’s got nothing to do with my group! I’ll tell you anything you want!” Dante looked at the floor, defeated. “I started the Movement six months ago. We started our first branch three weeks ago just outside of Pendragon. We’ve been out of contact with them for a week now.”

“Now that’s a good boy,” Kristoph said fondly. He looked at Freddy. “I told you I could get him to talk,” he gloated before bringing his attention back to the prisoner. “And now, as promised, we’ll set you free. I’m a man of my word, after all.” The look of surprised hope on the man’s face was so genuine that Kristoph almost felt bad for what he was about to do.

Kristoph immediately set to work unbinding the man from the chair. As soon as the prisoner was free, Kristoph helped him stand, even going so far as to support Dante’s weight. He carefully led the man out of the room and through the corridors, regularly giving word assurance. By now, the prisoner had started to suspect something was wrong. Unfortunately, he was powerless to do anything about it thanks to his wounds.

Within a few minutes, the pair had reached a door. It looked quite like any other on the ship, with one exception. This door had a small viewport at head height. Through that window was the sky. It was then that full realization dawned on Dante. “No! You can’t! You said you would let me go!” he shouted while trying weakly to escape. Kristoph pressed a switch next to the door and it slid open, filling the entire hallway with billowing wind.

“And I am,” Kristoph replied in a soothing tone. He looked Dante in the eyes and, with a shrug, pushed. Dante fell forward and out the door. For the briefest of moments, he hung in midair next to the ship. Kritsoph blinked and by the time his eyes had reopened, Dante Morrow was gone, hurtling towards the ground from around 20,000 feet straight up. “Bon voyage,” he said quietly after thumbing the door shut again.

[Touya Sakamoto]

-Thread Finished-

Kristoph Vashti: (1787 Words, Normal RP) - 179 EXP, 179 Credits [0]
Frederick Di Lowenthal: (968 Words, Normal RP) - 97 EXP, 97 Credits [0]

Thread being moved, changes being noted.